Underneath
by Tsa Ra Vier
Summary: "I will leave tomorrow." "Not before you settled things with your son!" "May there be a day, where I will forgive you." Reborn Valinor AU featuring Eöl, Aredhel and Maeglin. Finally I made these three to meet up once upon a time.


He never showed his presence. Up until now, light in feet even amongst the eldar. He comes and goes as silent as shadows. This made Aredhel sigh. She knew the difference between her husband's and her son's footsteps. This is unmistakeably him. It brought a heavy feeling to her heart, yet as always his voice soothes it immediately. He showed his tender obsessiveness by wrapping his arms around her waist. Smell of heavy cedar and smoke filled the air around her. His voice was deep and rough, slightly wet.

"Why did you ask me to stay?" he sighed once more. He planned to leave her forever after being reborn in her paradise. Far across the mountains where the dwarves laid with their great father, Aulë. He belonged there. It was his reason. She asked him to stay. Just one night.

"You cannot run." was her answer. She did not add more words to explain it, but he knew what she meant.

" I can't." he replied.

"I heard your voice and was caught in it. The voice that killed me, was not you. Still, I hear you sing before I die. I hear you reaching for my soul. You were telling me something that I never hear you say..." She leaned on his touch. She never showed this side of him to her Noldorin family. Aredhel the White, Aredhel the Wild, unbended by a moriquendë. "Yes." was his answer.

He would not wanted to repeat what he sang. "You have the power to move many. Yet, you stayed silent." She closed her eyes. She felt being dragged towards her bed.

"One said it would be wise." he replied."The Maia."He nodded. Aredhel snuggled towards her pillow. Eöl wrapped the blanket around her. Staring her with those gazing sharp eyes.

"Thingol..." Eöl said. " ...was in despair...when he fell in love with the Maia. He thought... " Eöl paused. He did not continue to speak.

"Hmm... was it love that was between us?" Aredhel yawned. Was it? She wondered. She heard a tale long ago telling even if heaven and earth fades, love shall remain. She was here. He was too. Does this means they remained ? Does that means love... their love?

He sang in his mind. Such a silly thing to do, husband. We love, we live, we got ourselves to take what little things that we love..We..."Maeglin..." He interrupted.

The song ceased into rigid coldness. He had shut his mind once more to her. "You have to talk to him too." Aredhel rose up and kissed his cheek. He buried his face under the blanket soon. Such shy creature. Does anybody else knew this side of him?

"Can't."

"You can and you will. I'll teach you again. Just like last time." She cupped his face. So rigid, he is. Even till now. Hesitant yet, the boldest person she ever knew. He needed that little push, something beyond the eggshell of a stern dark elf. He might tumble but still. She taught him so much and he taught him too little. Little important things she never asked, but hair. Was it this black before? Darkness showed it's best under light it seemed. Still so messy. Burnt edges by the forge and dry. Aredhel stroke him. Child.

He cleared his throat. "I will leave tomorrow."

"Not before you settled things with your son!" She rose.

"He will be better without me." His gaze was sharp and his grip rough against hers. "Don't make his harder than it is,Aredhel."

Aredhel's eye was widen. Not out of fear, but long wait in the halls of the dead made her wiser. "Maeglin needs you." she quickly stepped back and slowly released her hand. Not apologizing. He peered to meet Aredhel's eye. Whispering under the remnants of their connection."I will be with you." Her voice was reassuring.

She held his hands willingly and smiled sheepishly. This is the Aredhel he knew back then. Still the same, he sighed in peck his cheeks. He raised an eyebrow. Her kiss were returned with a deep possessive one. Their hand connect to each other and pressed each other to an embrace. Aredhel's cheeks were fluttering with deep red when Eöl licked her collarbone. She closed her eyes once again, feeling the presence of the dark elf's lips on her back and moved to her hands.

Aredhel had grown now. Some say bonded and trapped but it was not. She was still a free child of Oromë. She still joined the hunt and laugh as loud as the gushing wind. Maybe it was more. Her bravery dragged a child out of his tiny cave. Not a child. Eöl. What can she compare her Eöl to ? She gasped. Not because of the flick of sensation, but because he stopped. He stared at her naked back confused. Wanting to go back to the closet she hid him for the night. Was it shame that filled him? He looked at her with those wide piercing eyes. Those child-like eyes.

"Maeglin. He is behind the door." Eöl commented.

Aredhel stood. Did he knew ? She felt it. He knew. He knew his father was here. In his mother's room. She thought, it is now or never. To mend the severed bonds and retrieve what was left of... family.

She was going to open the door when Eöl grabbed her wrist almost forcefully. "No."he whispered.

Aredhel quickly retrieve her hand. No. She needed this to end. To be finished.

"Aredhel, please."

Aredhel wanted to stop. To halt and gaze back to his eye. His beautiful piercing eye. But no. She will not fall the same way she first met him. She opened the door and saw Maeglin-her child- in front of her.

"Ammë." Maeglin muttered.

What now ? She did not think that far. They have to.. How to start but...One of them must...

Maeglin's eye widened. "What is that thing doing here?!"

He had his sword with him-not Anguriel,but his-. Aredhel heart quickened immediately but the sight afterwards canceled her worries.

Eöl was fleeing into the wardrobe.

Maeglin was also too stunned to react afterwards. It was a moment of silence between the three.

Eöl used the silence to close the wardrobe door.

Aredhel thought it was impropriate to think of a baby cactus at this moment but she can't help but to imagine one. She laughed wildly causing odd stares from both Maeglin and Eöl who peeked from the wardrobe.

"You..." she can't stop laughing for no reason."better... solve this.." more laughs."between the two.."

Unexpectedly, Eöl was the first one to initiate the conversation. He stood tall-but stooped a little bit- out from the wardrobe. "I... I shall go."

"You better swore not to come back."Maeglin sneered.

"I swore." No names were put but he did swore. "Never to see The White Lady of Gondolin and The Lord of The House of Mole." It sounded odd, the titles coming from his mouth.

Maeglin shifted to Aredhel who finally stopped giggling. "Many I see, renounced their family, their kin and their bond. I..." Maeglin stuttered a while.

"I will not." He said.

Aredhel's eye widened. "Let it be known. I am Maeglin. Son of Aredhel, The White Lady and Eöl, The Dark Elf. I may not be able to give forgiveness, but know that I do not renounce you as father." May there be a day, where I will forgive you.

Eöl nodded. Aredhel smiled and held Maeglin's hand with pride. That is my son. My beloved son.

The next day, Eöl left. Best guess will be to the halls of the dwarves. Never to be seen for a very long time. Aredhel stayed as she were. A hunter and a rider. Sometimes, she was seen astray from the roads of the hunt, trying to take a glimpse of another curious creature of the forest. She never found him though, nevertheless, she tried.

It was these times that Maeglin had to fetch her mother back before dark came. It was not she was afraid of the dark, but because darkness proves greater challenge for Aredhel and she likes it. She loves to wander beyond the woods especially at dark to find what she believed was there.

She can only find Maeglin. Never the other one. When she found Maeglin, it means it is time to go home. She complied and went as usual. It goes on for a few hundred years. Afterwards, the hunting ceased for a while. But whispers and songs were heard sometimes and roused Aredhel to keep on searching. It became a game for them and Eöl always wins.

Eöl knew where to find both of them,as always. He always will. 


End file.
